dangerous to teach the redeemed that they really have
eternal life because it might lead to wilful, presumptuous sin, lose
sight of a fifth fact, that the child of God is not only redeemed
from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redeemed from under the law
(Rom. 6:14), adopted as a child of God because redeemed from the law
(Gal. 4:4-7), but that being redeemed, he is redeemed _from all
iniquity_ ("Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he
might _redeem us from all iniquity_."--Titus 2:13, 14). How can God,
because He is just, let the redeemed man, if he is redeemed _from all
iniquity_, be lost? "A young minister was in the habit of visiting an
aged Scotch woman in his congregation who was familiarly called 'Old
Nanny.' She was bed-ridden and rapidly approaching the end of her
'long and weary pilgrimage,' but she rested with undisturbed composure
and full assurance of faith upon the finished work of Christ. One day
he said to her, 'Now, Nanny, what if, after all your confidence in the
Saviour and your watching and waiting, God should suffer your soul to
be lost?' Raising herself on her elbow, and turning to him with a look
of grief and pain, she laid her hand on the open Bible before her, and
quietly replied, 'Ah, dearie me, is that the length you hae got yet,
mon? God,' she continued earnestly, 'would hae the greatest loss. Poor
Nannie would lose her soul, and that would be a great loss indeed; but
God would lose His _honor_ and His _character_. Haven't I hung my soul
upon His "exceeding great and precious promise"? and if He would break
His word He would make Himself a liar, _and a' the universe would rush
into confusion_.' This anecdote reveals the true ground of the
believer's safety. It is as high as the honor of God; it is as
trustworthy as His character; it is as immutable as His promises; it
is as broad as the infinite merit of His Son's atoning blood."--_J. H.
Brookes, in "The Way Made Plain."_

If God, "that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth
in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26), set forth Jesus Christ as a propitiation
through faith in his blood (Rom. 3:25), and then should let one be
lost who had been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), would He
not be as unjust in so doing as He would have been had He justified
sinners without Christ dying for their sins (1 Cor. 15:3)?

The blessed fact that the redeemed have as a present possession, here
and now, eternal life, and that it is et